Biography

Alexina (Lexy) Campbell was born and raised in Glen Pean at the western end of Loch Arkaig, where her father was a shepherd for Locheil.

On a Gaelic program on the BBC, she explained that she grew up in a place that was particularly remote at the start of the twentieth century, with only a few families and shepherds living in the glens around:

"It's a place called Srathan, at the end of Loch Arkaig. You go to Unachan, then down to Gairlochy and up through Achnacarry for about seventeen miles, to Glen Pean."

Their house was about four miles from the nearest community, Srathan, at the western end of Loch Arkaig, and about five miles from Loch Morar. They didn't see many people through the winter, but when spring came, the families would have ceilidhs, especially on Sundays.

There were seven in the family and, in addition, a shepherd often stayed with them. There was plenty of work to be done. They had four cows and three or four calves to feed. Peat had to be cut and dried, and they had to plant and grow enough potatoes to feed ten people. Hay had to be made, and Lexy remembered the ceilidh they'd have when the haystacks were ready. She also remembered how well Donald MacRae, the father of the famous fiddler Farquhar [1501], was at stacking.

Lexy lived in Glenpean until she was nineteen, though she had worked in Fort William before that. She would spend some time working away, then return to Glen Pean so her sister could go away for a while.

Lexy also spent some time working in Paisley. She then spent more than 30 years as a housekeeper for a Campbell family in Inverlair. She moved with them to Keppoch and spent several years there as well.

Lexy was over eighty years old when she was recorded by the BBC. She was living in Invernevis House in Fort William at that time, but she was as fond of songs and music as she had been when she was young, especially if they were funny.

Lexy passed away in Fort William on the day she turned 92, on 30 December 1986.